NewsWrap
for the week ending November 20, 1999
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #608, distributed 11-22-99)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge,
Martin Rice, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Andres Duque,
Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle]
Anchored by Kevin Riley and Cindy Friedman
United Methodist Church minister Jimmy Creech was defrocked this week as
punishment for blessing the union of North Carolina gay couple Larry Ellis
and James Raymer. Last year, a church court fell one vote shy of convicting
Creech of disobedience for blessing a lesbian couple in Nebraska, but did so
out of confusion as to whether the denomination's 1996 ban on so-called
"homosexual unions" was a law or merely a guideline. In the interim, the
church's highest judicial authority had confirmed it stood as law, but that
did not deter Creech from performing another ceremony.
Creech refused to accept counsel, enter a plea, participate in jury
selection, or present any defense except a lengthy closing argument in which
he urged the jury of 13 clergy to reach no verdict at all. His position is
that the law is a bad one, and he did not want to lend credibility to a
proceeding he called violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgendered people. Creech was the main witness for his own prosecution,
affirming that he viewed the union ceremonies as equivalent to marriage and
that nothing would stop him from continuing to bless same-gender
relationships. He has indicated that he will appeal to "make a witness"
against the ban.
Vigils and prayer services were held in some 20 cities across the U.S. before
the trial in support of Creech. In Grand Island, Nebraska, where the
proceedings were held, Creech presided at a renewal of vows between Ellis and
Raymer on the eve of the trial. Open gay Reverend Mel White gathered about
100 members of his Soulforce group from all over the country to protest the
trial. Seventy-four of them were arrested for briefly blocking the door to
the church where the trial was held, in a civil disobedience action
pre-planned with local police.
In other U.S. couple news, domestic partner health benefits were announced
this week by the Prudential Insurance Company and the CBS Corporation, and
were approved by the California State University system.
The Massachusetts state Senate also approved a bill to extend domestic
partner benefits to state employees and to allow local governments to do so.
But in Pennsylvania, the Republican majority in the state legislature
rushed through a bill to bar local governments from forcing state-funded
schools to extend domestic partner benefits. That move was aimed at the
current controversy between the city of Pittsburgh and the University of
Pittsburgh, and the University immediately asked for dismissal of the lawsuit
filed against it by a half-dozen of its gay and lesbian employees.
Recognition of gay and lesbian couples is under consideration elsewhere in
the world as well.
A committee of the Scottish Parliament is considering redefining "nearest
relation" -- or as others might say, next of kin -- to explicitly include
same-gender domestic partners. The issue arose in connection with
establishing guardianship for those with mental disabilities.
In Bogata, Colombia, the Joint Committee of the Superior Court declared
that the Civil Court rather than the Family Court should hear a gay widower's
inheritance dispute with his late partner's family. Both the Civil and
Family Courts had tried to refuse the case. The Superior Court ruling is the
first in Colombia as to which judicial authority should rule on economic
claims of surviving members of same-gender couples.
In Spain's Balearic Islands, a state cabinet member said the Balearics'
government may be introducing a bill in the coming year to extend adoption
rights to domestic partners. As General Director for Minors and Family Aina
Radú told a reporter, that "would be a landmark in Spain and one of the most
progressive laws in the country."
Adoptions by same-gender and other unmarried couples in California became
easier this week. Since 1987, the state's Republican governors had ordered
the Department of Social Services to recommend against all adoptions by
unmarried couples. But new Democratic Governor Gray Davis' administration
found that policy had not been established through proper channels, leaving
the state vulnerable to lawsuits, and scrapped the policy.
The lower house of the legislature of the Australian state of New South
Wales this week rejected a bill to equalize the age of consent for sex
between men, now 18, with that for heterosexual acts, which is 16. It was a
dramatic scene as morals campaigner Elaine Nile dragged in from her sickbed
to cast the single deciding vote. Two members of Parliament who had been
expected to support the private members bill were absent, one out of the
country and the other due to food poisoning.
Equalizing the age of consent is once again on the agenda in Britain,
announced this week in the ceremonial Queen's Speech that opens the
legislative session. This year and last year, equalization measures were
passed overwhelmingly in the House of Commons only to be blocked by majority
opposition in the House of Lords. However, Prime Minister Tony Blair's
Government has promised the European legal system that this time it will
force the bill through with the Parliament Act if the Lords object again.
The European Commission on Human Rights had found the unequal age of consent
to be illegal discrimination, but has delayed a pending lawsuit waiting for
Britain to amend its law.
While not explicitly stated in the Queen's Speech, the Blair Government also
made it clear that as part of reforming the Local Government Act, it will be
seeking repeal of the notorious Section 28. That Thatcher-era measure
prohibits local governments from devoting any resources to what it calls
"promotion of homosexuality." Surveys have found that this has served to
discourage teachers from intervening in homophobic bullying among students.
The Blair Government had considered holding off on Section 28 repeal, but was
apparently shamed into action by the Scottish Executive's move to repeal it.
Britain also observed Remembrance Day, a tradition dating back to World War
I that honors the memory of the nation's fallen soldiers. The national
parade to London's Cenotaph war memorial was followed by the direct action
group OutRage!, which carried pink flags, laid pink triangle wreaths, and
observed a minute of silence in honor of what may be a half-million lesbigays
who served for Britain in World War II. One gay whose late partner had
served said he was barred from marching with other widows and widowers,
although a British Legion spokesperson denied it.
In a case against the U.S. Navy this week, a judge ruled that the federal
government was exempt from a family's defamation lawsuit. When a 1989
explosion on the U.S.S. Iowa killed 46 sailors, the Navy tried to blame one
of the deceased, Clayton Hartwig, claiming he was suicidal at the ending of a
gay affair. In fact Hartwig was neither suicidal nor gay, and a
recently-published book makes a strong case that the Navy knew that when it
was trying to cover-up the substandard conditions on the ship. Hartwig's
family had sought $12-million from the Navy and intends to appeal.
At Fort Campbell in Kentucky this week, Private Calvin Glover pleaded not
guilty to the bashing murder of Private First Class Barry Winchell, who was
believed by his co-workers to be gay. A court-martial has also been ordered
against Winchell's roommate Specialist Justin Fisher for egging on Glover and
lying to investigators, but no date has yet been set.
The U.S. Hate Crimes Prevention Act will not be enacted in the current
session of Congress, since President Bill Clinton reached budget agreements
with lawmakers that did not include it. The HCPA would have added attacks
motivated by homophobia to federal hate crimes laws, among other provisions.
Activists were bitter at the intense opposition to the bill from Republican
leaders and disappointed that the Democratic President didn't fight harder
for the measure.
Back in Britain, Peter Tatchell and two other OutRage! members pleaded not
guilty to charges in connection with their attempted citizen's arrest of
Zimbabwe's notoriously homophobic President Robert Mugabe. Tatchell is
charged with using "threatening, abusive and insulting words and behavior"
and with assaulting a police officer, but points to his record of commitment
to non-violence. Alistair Williams and Chris Morris are charged with
disorderly conduct likely to cause "harassment, alarm or distress." Tatchell
said in court, "It is bizarre that we have been charged for trying to bring a
torturer to trial, while the police have allowed the torturer to go Christmas
shopping at Harrods and then fly back to Zimbabwe a free man." The group has
accused Mugabe of violating international law in the torture of two
journalists, as documented by Amnesty International. Three weeks after their
attempted citizen's arrest, Mugabe is still denouncing the British government
for their actions, this week describing the Blair government as a "rotting
gay state."
And finally ... dead this week at the age of 76 is Peter Wildeblood, who
was a key figure in turning the tide of opinion on homosexuality in Britain
and throughout the Commonwealth. In 1954, he was jailed on a conviction of
gross indecency along with Michael Pitt-Rivers and Lord Montagu of Beaulieu
for sex acts with two members of the Royal Air Force in what came to be known
as the Montagu affair. But Wildeblood emerged from his 18-month sentence to
publish a frank autobiography, "Against the Law," the first gay book to reach
a mass audience in the UK. It brought the public a new understanding of the
oppression suffered by gays. When the Wolfenden Committee was formed to
examine the laws against homosexual acts, Wildeblood gave testimony to the
Committee and briefings to the House of Lords. The Committee recommended for
decriminalization of private homosexual acts between consenting adults in
1957, although it took lawmakers another decade to follow through with repeal
of the sodomy law. Wildeblood wrote, "Very faintly, as though at the end of
a tunnel, I could see what I must do. I would make a statement . . . I
would simply tell the truth about myself . . . I would be the first
homosexual to tell what it felt like to be an exile in one's own country. I
might destroy myself, but perhaps I could help others." In fact Wildeblood
was not destroyed, but went on to quite a successful career as a playwright
and television and movie producer in Britain and Canada.